Memory stolen at gunpoint was ours, says Dane-Elec

Day's shipment lost as courier's van hit by robbers

The vanload of memory chips stolen in Surrey earlier this month belonged to memory distributor Dane-Elec, it has emerged. This is the second time the Chessington-based outfit has been targeted by robbers since the summer. In September, Dane-Elec's warehouse was broken into, resulting in £100,000 of modules stolen. The latest robbery saw around £250,000 worth of kit taken on 10 December. According to Alan Stanley, general manager at the distributor, most of the product stolen was notebook memory. The lorry, belonging to courier service Amtrak, contained most of the company's deliveries for the day. There were over 1,000 pieces of memory in the shipment. It was hijacked, and the driver abducted at gunpoint, in Chessington. Stanley said police had so far not told Dane-Elec of any developments in case. And he asked the IT industry to watch out for the kit. He would not give details on the product stolen, but said: "This was not run-of-the mill PC memory. Because of the nature of our business, not all of it was standard memory." Stanley asked for anyone offered cheap, volume notebook memory to get in touch. Information can be given to Dane-Elec on 0181 391 6900 or Kingston CID on 0181 247 4915. ® Related stories:Computer kit grabbed at gunpointDRAM robberies are backCompaq robbery – five per cent of sales lost